Guardian
by The Assassin's Pen
Summary: Adam collapses in a back alleyway of Lower Hengsha. At the mercy of Harvesters, someone unexpected saves him.


**Guardian **

Adam slumped against the graffitied wall in one of the slum alleyways of Lower Hengsha. He was holding his side where broken ribs were being tugged, scraping against one another by his Sentinel health implant. The implant would wrap metal tendrils around the break, but it would still ache for weeks and would mostly have to heal on its own. Especially with his low power cells. It wasn't a rule, but typically if his batteries were low then so were his calories and minerals. It was hard to mend bone when calcium was running out. He coughed painfully and grit his teeth, blood dribbling past his lips. He just had the presence of mind to spit a globule of it on the pavement before his vision flickered and he pitched forward.

The girl was no more than six, but she'd gotten good at scavenging. She picked her way along the alleyway, her toes poking out from the rough cloth her mother had tried to tie to make shoes. They'd been on the street as long as the girl could remember. Her silky black hair was mussed and cut unevenly, and the shirt she wore was made for a girl twice her age. She was wearing it like a dress. Her dark eyes darted back and forth like a wary deer, her footsteps avoiding smashed glass and rotting food almost without looking.

She bent suddenly and wriggled into the tight space behind a dumpster, her tiny fingers straining to catch hold of a dirty wrapper. When she retrieved it she wrapped up the half-chewed remains of a Cyberboost bar up like it was a living thing and tucked it with care into the bag slung across her chest. She clutched a hand down over the clasp to keep it from being easy to snag and she kept moving. When she saw blood she froze. It was not a sight she was unused to, but she had learned to be extra wary where blood was involved. It usually signaled the presence of one of the Harvester gang, and she knew to stay far away from them.

When she didn't see anyone she continued forward, crouched and wary. When she saw a body lying on its side she gasped and backtracked, hiding behind a trashcan. He'd been obscured by a storage container, but the blood trail led straight to him and he wasn't moving. His lips were red from coughing it up, and some still trickled out of the corner of his mouth, dripping lethargically onto the pavement. She inched forward, jabbing at his foot with a kick. The contact hurt, but she bit her lip and forced herself to stay silent, afraid of attracting attention. He didn't react.

She clenched harder on her bag strap and tried moving forward again, stopping when she was by his head. He had glasses obscuring his eyes, but she was certain he wasn't looking at her. Her eyes trailed down his body, catching on the shiny black of his arms. The Harvesters hadn't found him yet, but she knew that it was only a matter of time. Reaching out nervous hands, she braced her small weight against his bicep and pushed with all her strength, shifting his arm so it was no longer covering his chest. The heavy augment was warm against her palms. Hurriedly, she knelt next to him and pressed her tiny ear to his chest. He was wearing armor of some kind and she strained to listen through it, but she could hear no heartbeat behind it. She got up and started going through his pockets. She found a credit chip and two more Cyberboost bars in his cargo pants, but when she started to unlatch one of the pouches on his shoulder straps he groaned and she shot back like a startled rabbit.

She hid behind the trash can again, clutching the EMP grenade she'd found. Her breathing was shaky and loud as she peered around the can, watching his eyes flare behind his lenses with augment produced light. She froze. She knew that color. The last time someone's eyes had done that they'd seen her through a wall and she'd barely gotten away. She tensed to bolt but a Belltower cop walked past the alley entrance and she hunkered down further, trying not to cry. She was completely trapped and she knew the man would kill her for stealing from him.

Adam woke when something started rifling through his pockets. When his eyes opened his X-ray augment flickered to life for a split second, using the last dregs of his battery. The yellow outline of a crouched child showed up behind the trashcan just across the cramped space, and he could hear her gasping breaths. She was terrified. Slowly, feeling like his entire body was made of wet sand, Adam scraped his arm against the concrete and propped himself up on his elbow, looking in her direction even after the augment clicked off. Hesitantly, the girl poked her head out from behind the trashcan. She was clutching one of his grenades between her fingers and his heart jumped in momentary panic until he realized that it was the blue-black ribs of an EMP. If she accidentally set it off neither of them would be hurt. She shuffled forward and held the grenade out to him, dropping it in fear before he could actually reach out and take it from her. The movement of his arm towards her actually seemed to startle her more because she scrambled to get the bag over her head and drop it in front of him. She didn't move after that, her hands fisted close to her chest, her little chest heaving mightily.

"I'm sorry," she blurted, his augments translating her rapid-fire Chinese. "You can have it all back, please don't kill me."

Adam frowned, reaching for her bag and flipping it open. Two of his cyberboost bars, one of his credit chips, and a few handfuls of barely edible trash clustered together in the bottom. He looked up at her, his heart panging sharply. She was homeless and starving, and must have thought he was either passed out or dead. He didn't know if she'd understand him, but he didn't have software to tell him out to speak her language so he tried in English.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," he said slowly, retracting his shades so he was a little less intimidating. He closed the bag and pushed it towards her. "I'm not mad, you can keep what you took," he assured her gently, picking up the grenade. "I just don't want you to hurt yourself with this." He tucked it away. The girl blinked and sniffed, trying to get her frightened tears under control. She seemed to understand at least part of what he'd said because she started to move forward again, grabbing the bag up and jumping back as though she'd expected his offer to be a trap.

He wanted to reassure her further but he didn't know what to say and his lungs suddenly seized up in a painful, rib-grinding cough. He felt something give way near his lung and suddenly he was spitting up blood again, his hands fisted to try and deal with the pain. The girl remained, watching him, her fear melting into a expression of concern. She ran sprite like out of the alleyway and returned only moments later with a half-drunk bottle of water. She knelt next to him and sat back on her feet, holding the bottle out. He looked at her, at her concerned, earnest eyes, and he took the water. It didn't even matter in that moment where she'd gotten it.

"Thank you," he said, putting the empty bottle on the ground. "What is your name?"

She looked like she was considering an answer when her head suddenly whipped around and she tensed up. Someone was approaching, and she caught sight of them before he did. She scrambled over to him, gripping his arm with urgency. "Be dead," she said in English, her voice tense around the unfamiliar language. When he furrowed his brow trying to understand she pushed on his head and chest, as though she wanted him to lay back. He resisted her at first until he recognized the mechanical clicking of augmented feet approaching them. Harvesters. There were Harvesters coming towards him, and he was in no shape to fight them. He went limp, closing his eyes and holding his breath.

The girl wriggled in under the injured man's arm, burying her face into his chest and sobbing loudly, pressing her bag between their bodies so the Harvesters wouldn't see it. The two men approached, and she fisted her hands in the man's shirt, listening over her own cries to the Harvester's hushed conversation.

The first whistled. "Tong will want these for himself. What are those, custom military?"

"I've never seen anything like them," the second said, and the girl could feel the fallen man's body jerk as the Harvester kicked him. "Dead," he said. "Should be an easy crop."

"So take the little girl off him and we can take him back to base. Boss'll have us both if he finds out we missed a collection like this."

"You crazy? We can't take her off of him. Look at how she's sobbing—we try to move her she'll make a scene and then Belltower will get him."

"Then we shut her up,"

There was a pause. "You're sick. I'm not harming a little girl. What if that's her father she's clinging to? We wait till she falls asleep or runs away, then we come back for the body."

There was a sharp sound as the second Harvester hit the first. "You idiot, he's a Westerner. American, by the look of his gear. The girl is one of us, what kind of Biology did you take? He's not her father. They're not even related."

The girl sobbed even louder, clenching on the man as she felt his chest rise a little. He was sipping at oxygen, unable to hold his breath for that long. She hunched her shoulders so the Harvesters would not notice his movement.

There was a rustling of gear as the first Harvester pulled away from his companion. He made a disgusted noise. "Whatever. She's clearly upset. Let's go around the corner and watch for Belltower, just to be sure. Then we can come back later. It's not like anyone else is going to pick him up."

"Fine, but if we lose him you're taking the fall."

Gradually, she released her hold and picked her head up as their footfalls disappeared around the corner. She sat back on her heels, drying her faked tears. Adam opened his eyes when he was sure it was safe, eyebrows raised as he met the girl's gaze.

"Thank you," he said, moving to sit up properly this time, though his progress was stiff and slow.

"Jia."

He smiled, nodding his head. "My name is Adam. Thank you, Jia."

She pressed her lips together in a hesitant smile and bobbed her head, getting to her feet. She bowed to him respectfully and darted away into the alley, blending like a shadow into the cracks of the world. Adam watched her go, staring after her for several long seconds before getting painfully to his feet and slipping away from the Harvesters.


End file.
